Sakuragi was born in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan in 1965 to parents who owned and ran a local barbershop.

[7] In 2012 Sakuragi's short story collection Kishūteneki Tāminaru (起終点駅 (ターミナル), Terminals) was published by Shogakukan.

[2][9] The short story collections Blues (ブルース, Burūsu) and Hoshiboshitachi (星々たち, Stars) were published in 2014, followed by the 2015 novels Uraru (霧, Mist) and Sore o ai towa yobazu (それを愛とは呼ばず, Don't Call That Love).

In 2016 Sakuragi's novel Kōri no wadachi (氷の轍, Tracks in the Ice), about the investigation of an elderly man's death on a Hokkaido beach, was published by Shogakukan and adapted into a TV Asahi television movie starring Ko Shibasaki.

[10] Her novel Sajō (砂上), a partly autobiographical story about a writer and editor, was published by Kadokawa Shoten in 2017.